Helen Frankenthaler

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

American painter Helen Frankenthaler died yesterday at the age of 83 at her home in Darien, CT. Frankenthaler's successful career spans over the last 6 decades. She emerged as a leading abstract painter in the mid 20th century with her developed technique of pouring turpentine thinned paint onto an unprimed canvas, allowing the paint to soak & bleed into the raw material. This "stain" method was applied to arguably her most important work to date, Mountains and Sea (seen below), painted in 1952, securing her placement among the rising and respected avant-garde artists of the day.